More Visual Arts News
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Rembrandt: Masterpieces in Black and White shows at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery
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The Midlands has a wealth of art galleries and museums hosting a range of fantastic exhibitions - both permanent and temporary. Here's a selection of what's showing across the region.
SHREWSBURY MUSEUM & ART GALLERY
SUN & FIRE: LIFE AND DEATH AT THE DAWN OF HISTORY - untl Wed 30 April
Taking a look at life in ancient Shropshire, Sun & Fire provides visitors with an opportunity to learn about life in the county between 4,500 and 2,000 years ago. As its main title suggests, the exhibition has a particular focus on the significance of light and heat for people living in prehistoric times, exploring how the sun was once upon a time celebrated with huge stone circles and bright gold objects... The exhibition is interactive and has been funded by Arts Council England.
BANTOCK HOUSE, WOLVERHAMPTON
THE LANCHESTER MARIONETTES - until Wednesday 30 April
A famous Midlands puppet company - which once had a short drama written for it by legendary playwright George Bernard Shaw - comes under the spotlight in this recently opened exhibition.
The Lanchester Marionettes, formed in Malvern in 1936 by already-successful puppeteer Waldo Lanchester and his ceramicist wife, Muriel, quickly established itself as the country’s foremost puppet company, performing before King George VI and a young Princess Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in 1938.
The couple moved to Stratford-upon-Avon in the early 1950s, where they opened a puppet centre opposite the birthplace of Shakespeare.
This fascinating show looks at a range of Waldo & Muriel’s marionettes, from their earliest creations to some of the final ones they made.
BEAR STEPS GALLERY, SHREWSBURY
Head to Art Group Spring Exhibition Sunday 2 - Saturday 15 Feb
Bear Steps Art Gallery Solo Exhibitions Featuring works by Rosie Read, Dawn Hubbard & Anthony Finnegan, Sunday 16 February - Saturday 1 March
BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM & ART GALLERY
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR - until Sunday 20 April
“We are facing urgent biodiversity and climate crises, and photography is a powerful catalyst for change.”
So says Dr Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, which has developed and produced this prestigious competition.
“As we celebrate 60 years of Wildlife Photographer Of The Year,” adds Dr Gurr, “we also celebrate the generations of visitors who have been inspired by the beauty and majesty of its images, and the millions of connections made with nature.”
Visiting Birmingham as part of an extensive national and international tour, the exhibition features a host of awe-inspiring images capturing fascinating animal behaviour and breathtaking landscapes.
Image credit: Jason Gulley
REMBRANDT: MASTERPIECES IN BLACK AND WHITE - Thursday 6 March - Sunday 1 June
Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery is the only UK stop-off for this major new show, which marks the first time Rembrandt’s etchings have been brought out of the Netherlands as a collection.
“We are delighted to be bringing his fascinating prints to Birmingham,” says Epco Runia, head of collections at the Rembrandt House Museum, which has co-organised Masterpieces In Black And White with the American Federation of Arts. “With this exhibition, we hope to demonstrate that each of Rembrandt’s prints is a work of art in its own right. If you take the time to look at them closely, a whole world opens up to you: a world in black & white, but with enormous visual richness.”
CURTIS HOLDER: DRAWING CARLOS ACOSTA
Curtis Holder, winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year in 2020, was commissioned to draw Carlos Acosta, director of Birmingham Royal Ballet. This display brings together portraits Curtis made during the competition and his working sketches.
MODERN MUSE BY ARPITA SHAH
A series of photographic portraits celebrating the identities and experiences of young South Asian women from Birmingham and the West Midlands.
COMPTON VERNEY, WARWICKSHIRE
THE REFLECTED SELF: PORTRAIT MINATURES, 1550 - 1850 - until Sunday 23 February
Across a period exceeding 300 years, portrait miniature paintings created in Britain performed numerous functions. Not only did they serve as emblems of love and loyalty, they were also used as markers of royal favour and exchanged as diplomatic gifts between foreign courts.
Compton Verney’s new exhibition celebrates these exquisitely painted portable portraits, bringing together artwork from the gallery’s own collection with important loans from the Dumas Egerton Trust Collection and private lenders.
The exhibition also includes specially commissioned films, bringing to life the highly personal nature of the portraits. Work by contemporary artists - demonstrating the miniatures’ ongoing relevance and ability to captivate - also features.
Image: Simon Bevan
REUNITED: THE LAMENTATION ALTERPIECE - until Friday 28 February
After 30 years of its central panel being housed in the National Gallery of Scotland’s collection, this is a chance to see a rare masterpiece, reunited, until Fri 28 Feb
BREATHING WITH THE FOREST - Saturday 8 February to Sunday 6 April
An immersive video installation that illuminates the ecosystem surrounding a capinuri tree (Maquira coriacea) in the Colombian Amazon, recreating a real plot of Amazonian forest in astounding detail, Sat 8 Feb - Sun 6 April
EMIL ALRAI - Saturday 15 February to Sunday 15 June
Blackpool-born and Yorkshire-based artist Emii Alrai produces sculptures and installations that imitate archaeological artefacts and which combine ancient mythologies from the Middle East with oral histories from her own Iraqi heritage. Her aim with her art is to highlight the contrast between the polished aesthetics of museums and the states of ruin which befall archaeological objects and the landscapes from which they are excavated.
Emii’s Compton Verney commission sees her responding to the venue’s nationally important Naples Collection.
Through a sequence of darkening rooms, the artist dramatises the moment of archaeological discovery, at the same time considering ‘themes of volcanic eruption and geological rupture as metaphors for our times’.
THE HERBERT MUSEUM & ART GALLERY, COVENTRY
COLLECTING COVENTRY - until Sunday 27 April 2025
Seventy-five years of collecting is being celebrated in this brand-new and long-running exhibition.
Featuring a selection of objects dating from the founding of the Herbert Art Gallery in 1949 through to the present day, the show is being presented across four of the Herbert’s rooms.
Featured objects and curiosities include a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite, a Covid testing kit, LS Lowry’s famous painting of Ebbw Vale and a number of items being displayed for the very first time.
DIPPY IN COVENTRY: THE NATION'S FAVOURITE DINOSAUR until Tuesday 21 February 2026
The Natural History Museum’s iconic Diplodocus cast - life-size, made of plaster-of-paris, and affectionately referred to as Dippy - has taken up residence in Coventry for an initial period of three years.
Diplodocus carnegii, to give it its official name, lived during the Late Jurassic period, somewhere between 155 and 145 million years ago. Huge, plant-eating dinosaurs with long, whip-like tails, they grew to about 25 metres in length and are believed to have weighed around 15 tonnes, making them three tonnes heavier than a London double-decker bus.
Dippy first arrived in London in 1905 and recently visited Birmingham as part of an eight-city tour that attracted a record-breaking two million visitors.
COVENTRY OPEN 2025 - Friday 28 March to Sunday 8 June
This prestigious event aims to showcase the quality and diversity of art being produced in Coventry and the wider West Midlands region, providing valuable selling opportunities for artists.
Building on the success of the Young Artist's Showcase introduced in 2023, this year's event sees the return of the Young Artists category, allowing artists aged 15-18 the chance to exhibit their work.
Visual artists working in any medium are invited to submit images and supporting information about their work via our online submissions portal. A £1000 prize will be awarded to one winning entry chosen by an independent judging panel, alongside an additional prize for the Young Artist's Showcase winner.
The exhibition promises something for everyone, featuring an eclectic mix of artworks that will appeal to visitors of all ages. Past exhibitions have included a wide variety of artworks in different mediums such as painting, drawing, print, sculpture, photography, ceramics, moving images, sound, textiles, mixed media, and installations.
IKON GALLERY, BRINDLEY PLACE, BIRMINGHAM
FRIENDS IN LOVE AND WAR: L'ÉLOGE DES MEILLEUR·ES ENNEMI·ES - until Sunday 23 February
An exhibition exploring the nature and role of friendship in contemporary life, Friends In Love And War features paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, textiles, film, sculpture and installation.
The exhibition is showing at Ikon as part of the venue’s 60th anniversary year.
THE MEAD GALLERY, WARWICK ARTS CENTRE, COVENTRY
THE FUTURE IS TODAY - until Sunday 9 March
Taking the subtitle Prints And The University Of Warwick, 1965 To Now, this brand-new major survey exhibition of work from the university’s art collection - and from other museums, artists and private collectors - examines the ideas that have been explored by successive generations during the 60 years since the university opened and the collection was founded.
The exhibition contains a free, working print studio, where visitors can make monoprints inspired by what they see in the show.
Read more about the exhibition here
Image: Lubaina Himid, A Rake's Progress Hole in her Stocking (2022)
MIDLANDS ARTS CENTRE (MAC), CANNON HILL PARK, BIRMINGHAM
WASTE AGE: WHAT CAN DESIGN DO? - until Sunday 23 February
MAC’s first collaboration with the Design Museum is a group exhibition focusing on a new generation of designers who are ‘rethinking our relationship to everyday things’.
Telling the story of the environmental crisis, the show explores how design can transform waste into valuable resources.
The exhibition features a new sculptural commission inspired by clothes waste markets in Nigeria. The work has been created by Birmingham-based artist Abdulrazaq Awofeso.
RUBBISH REDESIGNED - until Sunday 2 March
This group exhibition reflects and celebrates the imaginative approaches which are being taken to circular design and waste innovation across the West Midlands.
The showcase highlights the creative uses of common waste materials, such as orange peel and cow manure, and addresses the pressing need to reconsider how the planet’s resources are utilised and recycled... Rubbish Redesigned forms part of MAC’s sustainability season.
NEW ART GALLERY, WALSALL
REFLECTOR - until Sunday 9 March
Reflector is the culmination of an intensive professional development programme for emerging photographers, artists and curators from diverse backgrounds across the country.
The exhibition both celebrates the participants’ achievements to date and also provides an important step towards their future creative and professional development.
EQUAL + ABLE = NOT A LABEL - until Sunday 18 May
Exhibition exploring ableism through the New Art Gallery Walsall Collections. This is the third project in the venue's embedding diversity series.
EARTHBOUND - until Sunday 8 June
Work by nine artists and community makers is featured in this topical exhibition, a show set within the context of global anxiety about the climate crisis.
Addressing earthbound themes that connect people with soil, plants, seeds, mycelium, animals and birds - and the histories, cultures and knowledge surrounding these - the exhibition includes sculpture, drawing, painting and installation, as well as work produced via natural art-making techniques.
Image: Charmaine Watkiss, The warrior focuses intent to overcome adversity, 2022.
THE POTTERIES MUSEUM & ART GALLERY, STOKE-ON-TRENT
NO GOING BACK - until Sunday 2 March
A thought-provoking and, for visitors of a certain vintage, memory-stirring exhibition, No Going Back is presented by North Staffs Miners Wives and revisits the Miners’ Strike of 1984/85.
Featuring photographs and memorabilia recalling an event which radically changed Britain’s industrial landscape forever, the display will remain available to view until early March, its closure coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the end of the strike.
THE SOCIETY OF STAFFORDSHIRE ARTISTS - until Sunday 23 February
This exhibition has been assembled to celebrate the 100 Years of Stoke-on-Trent as a City and as a centre for artistic creativity, as well as 90 years of being a focus and showcase for the Society’s
RBSA GALLERY, BIRMINGHAM
RBSA FRIENDS EXHIBITION 2025 - until Sat 8 Feb
Exhibition of works by the wider RBSA community, showcasing artists at all stages of their careers.
RBSA SOLO EXHIBITION - until Sat 22 Feb
Featuring works in textile by Margaret Fairhead RBSA, dry-point prints by Satinder Parhar GRBSA and ceramics by Patrick O’Donohue ARBSA.
UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM EXHIBITION: REMEMBERING IS PAINFUL, FORGETTING IS UNBEARABLE - Tuesday 11 to Saturday 22 February
Exhibition that questions the role of art in the practices of remembering, bearing witness, confronting, and transforming trauma.
STOURBRIDGE GLASS MUSEUM, WORDSLEY
GREENER GLASS - until Sunday 27 July
With an emphasis on eco-friendly practices and the artistic exploration of environmental themes, the future of glassmaking is brought firmly into focus in this long-running exhibition.
The show - co-curated by UK artists in collaboration with University of Birmingham students - features a diverse array of glass artworks produced using a wide range of techniques, including kiln work, glass blowing, mosaic, flame working and cast glass.
WOLVERHAMPTON ART GALLERY
THE PERFECT SENTENCE - until Sunday 23 February
Oliver Frank Chanarin’s new exhibition interrogates the photographic image in the age of the algorithm. At the centre of the installation are two machines made by the artist in collaboration with Tom Cecil and Ruairi Glynn, continuously rehanging framed photographs, until Sun 23 Feb
POP, PRINT, PROTEST - until Sunday 11 May
Featuring artwork created in the mid-20th century, this fascinating show explores how Pop Artists used mixed-media collage and combined text and image in order to protest against capitalism, racism and conflict. In the process of doing so, the artists were responding to some of the biggest social and political issues of the time, including the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War... The exhibition has been curated by Sophie Hatchwell, who is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Birmingham.
Image credit: Bela Lugosi Journal (1964) Joe Tilson, © DACs
PAINTED DREAMS: THE ART OF EVELYN DE MORGAN
Pre-Raphaelite artist Mary Evelyn Pickering De Morgan (1855 - 1919) painted in an elegant style inspired by Italian Renaissance paintings - particularly the work of Botticelli - and often featured female figures and mythological or allegorical subjects in her work.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery is currently displaying 30 of De Morgan’s oil paintings and drawings, recreating an exhibition which was held at the venue in 1907.
The original show, the largest of De Morgan’s career, certainly made an impression. One reviewer at the Wolverhampton Express & Star newspaper called the pictures “painted dreams”, an evocative description which has provided the gallery’s current exhibition with its title.
The artworks, here reunited for the first time in more than 100 years, have been loaned from private collections and by the Trustees of the De Morgan Foundation.
Image: Love’s Passing, 1883, Evelyn De Morgan © Trustees of the De Morgan Foundation
ALSO SHOWING ACROSS SHROPSHIRE:
IRONBRIDGE FINE ARTS GALLERY
Ironbridge Fine Arts Winter 2024 - until Tuesday 25 February
Featuring works by Su France, John Pedder, Graeme Storey, Ali Wright, Vic Sayers & Rob Pountney, in a mixture of media, style and subject.
JACKFIELD TILE MUSEUM, IRONBRIDGE
SHREWSBURY COLLEGE ART TAKEOVER - Wednesday 12 February to Sun 2 March
Art students from the college have created artworks inspired by the Jackfield Tile Museum in Ironbridge Gorge. The art is being exhibited at the museum for half-term week.
LUDLOW ASSEMBLY ROOMS, SOUTH SHROPSHIRE
VIBRANT MOODS AND TEMPOS: LOUISE C EAMES - until Saturday 8 March
A series of works by gestural abstract painter Louise, featuring intensely bright, brash and zinging colours.
THE ROSE PATERSON GALLERY, WESTON PARK, SHIFNAL, SHROPSHIRE
CULTUREKIND CHINESE COMMUNITY EXHIBITION - until Thursday 27 February
Exhibiton celebrating the Lunar New Year - the year of the snake. The exhibition features a variety of cultural items, including Chinese paintings, handcrafted jewellery, traditional lanterns, and parasols alongside artwork from the group. There will also be photographs relating to the Bridgeman family’s own travels in China.